Adelson Says He Could Give $100 Million More to Help Gingrich

Casino mogul and billionaire Sheldon Adelson has been talking to his friends and associates for weeks about the importance of this year’s national elections and about the money he is willing to give to support his longtime friend, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

He told two friends last week after watching Rick Santorum surge that he was worried enough about Mr. Santorum’s electability in the general election that he was ready to give another $10 million to Mr. Gingrich, even if it only was used to keep Mr. Gingrich alive through Super Tuesday, March 6, and stop Mr. Santorum.

Today, Forbes reports he says he could pony up $100 million. Forbes quotes Mr. Adelson criticizing people who say he’s trying to buy the presidential race for Mr. Gingrich. “They like to trash other people. It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair—but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million to Gingrich,” he said in the Forbes interview. He later added, “I’m proud of what I do and I’m not looking to escape recognition.”

Mr. Adelson’s friends and associates have cited $100 million in recent months in talking with the Journal about Mr. Adelson’s determination to unseat President Barack Obama. Mr. Adelson has condemned Mr. Obama’s policies towards Israel, which he has said pose a danger to the Jewish state.

Mr. Adelson, his wife and family have given $11 million to a Super PAC supporting Mr. Gingrich, with $10 million donated in January. The Super PAC, Winning Our Future, ferociously attacked front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina and later Florida. Mr. Adelson was upset at one set of PAC ads that slammed Mr. Romney’s role years ago at Bain Capital.

Mr. Adelson reiterated that he doesn’t like negative campaigning, and questioned news reports that his contributions fueled those PAC attack ads. “That’s what everybody says, but that doesn’t mean it’s true,” he told Forbes.

But recently released finance reports from Winning Our Future show that $10 million of the $11 million the PAC raised in January came from the casino magnate and his wife in separate $5 million gifts, arriving before the primaries in South Carolina and Florida. For the Adelsons, that’s a small part of their estimated net worth, which exceed $21 billion.

A spokesman for Las Vegas Sands Corp., Ron Reese, said, “Mr. Adelson’s full quote to Forbes about negative ads speaks to the issue very clearly, and there is no need for me to elaborate.”

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